The Twins entered Friday’s game against the Texas Rangers as the best-fielding team in baseball, with a major league-best 10 errors and .994 fielding percentage.

That’s nine fewer errors than the next-best team, the San Francisco Giants. But even those numbers don’t tell the entire story.

Rangers shortstop Elvis Andrus started Friday night’s game with a blooper that nearly fell in short left field, but Twins shortstop J.J. Hardy made an over-the-shoulder catch. The second batter, Michael Young, hit a rocket to second, but Orlando Hudson ranged right and stabbed it before throwing to first for the second out.

Had the first ball dropped, and the second evaded Hudson, they no doubt would have been hits, with no error called. But the Twins made the plays and gave starter Kevin Slowey an easy first inning.

“It’s not just guys standing in the same spot and catching everything,” first baseman Justin Morneau said. “They’re making good defensive plays. Sometimes those errors can be misleading, but not with those guys.”

Infielders Morneau, Hardy, Nick Punto, Brendan Harris and Alexi Casilla were errorless heading into Friday’s game. So was Michael Cuddyer, at first base and right field.

“I don’t worry about the errors; we’re not making the mental mistakes, which is a good thing,” manager Ron Gardenhire said. “We’re throwing the balls to the right bases, we’re catching the balls we’re supposed to catch and not giving many extra outs.”

Morneau said the Target Field infield is among the best in baseball, and said he definitely doesn’t miss the Metrodome infield, where the bases were lodged in small patches of dirt.

“At the Dome, you were in trouble with the lip,” he said. “Here, the lip is a little further out; it gives you more chance to read it. … There’s probably an extra split-second to react rather than just sit there and hope you don’t get hit in the face.”

Span’s triple wishes: Denard Span knows you’re never supposed to make the first or last out at third base, which is why he applied the brakes after rounding second on a late-inning double Thursday night.

If Span had been a cartoon character, his move would have been accompanied by the sound of screeching brakes.

“I don’t even like doubles. I’ll be honest,” he said. “That’s why it was so hard to stop.”

The Twins’ leadoff hitter wants triples. Lots of them.

“I want to lead the league in triples,” he said Friday. “That’s a speed thing. That’s what I feel is one of my categories.”

Span had 10 triples last season and entered play Friday with three this year, tied with 11 other players, including former Twin Cristian Guzman. Milwaukee’s Alcides Escobar, Washington’s Nyjer Morgan and Shane Victorino of Philadelphia lead the majors with five apiece.

Span has 10 doubles this season (Morneau leads the team with 15) after finishing last season with 16. “It felt like whenever I hit one in the gap (at the Metrodome), I was going three,” Span said. “Maybe that’s what it was.”

Batting order: Gardenhire moved Cuddyer down a spot in the order for the second consecutive night, swapping in the left-handed bat of designated hitter Jim Thome against Texas righty Colby Lewis.

It was the same move he made in Thursday night’s 8-2 victory over the New York Yankees, who started right-hander Javier Vazquez. Cuddyer moved to the sixth spot, one ahead of left fielder Jason Kubel, who unloaded for five RBIs with a double and two homers.

“I wanted a bunch of lefties up. I wanted a little more protection for Morneau,” Gardenhire explained.

Briefly: Punto started for the first time since last Saturday. He had been bothered by a jammed ring finger on his right hand.

Joe Mauer grounded into his 12th double play, tying Cuddyer and Kansas City’s Billy Butler for the major league lead.

As you comment, please be respectful of other commenters and other viewpoints. Our goal with article comments is to provide a space for civil, informative and constructive conversations. We reserve the right to remove any comment we deem to be defamatory, rude, insulting to others, hateful, off-topic or reckless to the community. See our full terms of use here.

More in Sports

It was clear early on that the Gophers women’s basketball team was in for a physical game against Army. Minnesota didn’t seem to mind all the hands, elbows and hips directed its way — the Gophers play in the Big Ten, after all — and earned a 70-52 victory over the Black Knights on Thursday night at Williams Arena. “I...

Top-seeded Concordia-St. Paul will make its ninth appearance in the NCAA Division II national semifinals after defeating No. 8 American International in three sets Thursday night at the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls, S.D. The Golden Bears (33-2), who won 25-6, 25-16, 25-13, will face No. 5 Lewis at 7:30 p.m. Friday. No. 6 Alaska-Anchorage and No. 2 Palm Beach...

TORONTO — DeMar DeRozan, Kyle Lowry and the Toronto Raptors pushed aside the Minnesota Timberwolves — again. With Toronto down 95-94 with 8:46 left, DeRozan and Lowry keyed a 17-4 Raptors run that took the game away from the youthful Timberwolves. Toronto eventually pulled out a 124-110 victory, handing Minnesota its 13th straight loss at Air Canada Centre. “We just...

Members of the Missouri Tigers volleyball team are ready to have about 5,500 people rooting against them Friday night at 7:15 p.m. when they take on Minnesota’s Golden Gophers in the first round of the NCAA volleyball Minneapolis regional. “We’ve competed against a Big Ten team (Purdue, whom 27-5 Missouri defeated to advance to the regional semifinal) and that wasn’t a...

Unafraid of introducing his players to advanced statistics, Gophers coach Richard Pitino routinely tells his squad where they stand among college basketball’s top teams in stats not included in a box score. He prints out charts that combine traditional and advanced statistics, discusses them with players at practice and has an assistant track them during games to help with adjustments....

Vikings coach Mike Zimmer was optimistic punt returner Marcus Sherels will be able to play Sunday at Jacksonville, which would be a boost to a special-teams unit that struggled in several phases in last week’s loss to Dallas. Sherels has missed three of the past four games because of injury, including the previous two. Adam Thielen and Cordarrelle Patterson assumed...